Usually, tests for a third year student are created with the goal of identifying the classics and/or big things. They could put some ridiculously complicated EKG on there, but it wouldn't be beneficial for the assessment when a huge percentage of students have to guess. There are always a few of those out there questions, but that is to be expected.

Took it today and it was as random and tricky as anticipated. Overall, it felt very uworld-ish in question structure and choices...even had a few scattered peds questions. I never feel good after these exams, so I won't use that gauge anything.

Best preparation is probably questions, questions and more questions but if I had to do it over again, I might've looked a few more things up in StepUp. Other than that, if I didn't know it or was confused, there wasn't much I could do about it. It was the first test that I was truly rushed at the end. I normally finish with 10-15 minutes left, but I am pretty sure I wasted time on questions and spaced out for part of it.

Just took it today, random, was surprised by the amount of peds and gyn on mine...

UWorld questions were way closer to the style and content on the test than those in the MKSAP.

I tried reading Step Up to Medicine... but then I was reminded that review books make me want to hang myself. So most of my studying was done via reading on my patients, and doing most of the UWorld questions.

Took it today and it was as random and tricky as anticipated. Overall, it felt very uworld-ish in question structure and choices...even had a few scattered peds questions. I never feel good after these exams, so I won't use that gauge anything.

Best preparation is probably questions, questions and more questions but if I had to do it over again, I might've looked a few more things up in StepUp. Other than that, if I didn't know it or was confused, there wasn't much I could do about it. It was the first test that I was truly rushed at the end. I normally finish with 10-15 minutes left, but I am pretty sure I wasted time on questions and spaced out for part of it.

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u mind explaining why you wished you had read more step up?

my shelf is a month away. i just finished the usmleworld questions w like 55% correct. not sure where to go from here. im gonna go over the questions i marked on usmleworld, but im not sure if i should read step up again, or do casefiles/mksap 4 or 5.

part of my concern is that ive gotten so bogged down in details from usmle world questions that i might have forgotten some bread n butter stuff.

The test felt like it had a lot of diagnosis questions that hinged on a single diagnostic to differentiate between the answers. Usually the subtle stuff one doesn't think of. Step Up is good for that. I really did not read much of any of it. I did all the uworld questions, all mksap 4 and 5, most of mksap 3, Kaplan step 2 Qbook IM questions and a hefty portion of an internal medicine board review Qbook from Kaplan. A little more structure and formal reading probably would've been wise, but we will see in a few days.

even if you don't know all the details to differentiate, you'd be better served to err on the side of more benign vs malignant or managing in a less aggressive way vs more aggressive. you'll be right most of the time.

Well yea, but when the question is asking for the diagnosis and not management and the diseases are fairly equal in outcomes , that doesn't really matter.

Got my score back the other day. 83 percentile. I'm a little dissapointed, but think I made a bunch of stupid mistakes because of crappy time management. Usually, I have 20 minutes to go back over and reread some of the questions I needed to think over more, but didn't have that chance on this one. I still honored, so I can't be TOO dissapointed.

My IM shelf is in 6 weeks, and currently I'm doing a mix of Step Up To Medicine, UW questions, and SIMPLE cases (required by our clerkship). My clerkship site gave us copies of MKSAP to borrow, but I haven't touched mine yet. Is it worth doing for the extra practice questions, or is there really no good correlation in question style/content between MKSAP and the IM shelf?

From what I've seen there are mixed reviews, some people like MKSAP and some don't. My uncle gave me his copy of MKSAP but I didn't like it as there were some really off the wall questions on it compared to UWorld. The MKSAP usually correlates to the Essentials of Internal Medicine made by CDIM but I get overloaded already with Step Up to Medicine (currently 3/4 of the way through and my shelf is on April 20th) so I'm sticking with UWorld and not MKSAP. Either way you're at least doing some sort of practice.

I had one biostat question that was really easy. Can't think of any of the others.

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So I've med coming up after Step 1 and I was snooping around in this thread. Would somebody mind giving me an update on what things people use most to kill the Medicine shelf (being that this thread extends back about 7 years). Thanks in advance

I did the "questions only" approach to this exam and got my best grade of any shelf yet. 700 or so USMLERx Medicine questions (~70% correct) + about 100-200 MKSAP questions --> ~90th percentile on the shelf.

Every other student I talked to read Step Up or something similar. I just didn't get around to it and kept plugging away on questions.

Time management is big time on this test. I am usually a fast test taker. I used 1 hr on the first 30 questions and then had to hustle the rest of the way. I finished with about 10 minutes left, went back and changed 3 answers. Other students I talked to had major time management issues with this one.

I don't know that I would advise not reading like I did, but definitely don't neglect practice questions on this test, as the UW/Rx questions seemed very high yield.

Topic wise, I know a lot of people stress out about biostats, but I only had 1 question that was very easy.

95 scaled on the shelf. I had done surgery, psych, and family before this rotation, shelfs in the high 90s. Knowledge from the surgery shelf is definitely useful for this shelf.

Resources: Case Files x 2, NMS Casebook Medicine x1 (excellent book), and lightly skimmed Step Up to Medicine (dense and difficult to retain for me personally). Skimmed UpToDate very lightly during the rotation for patients' problems. I watched all of the Kaplan Step 2 internal medicine video lectures as well before the rotation started, and had watched Pestana a while before for surgery. On the whole, very happy with the reading resources I chose.

Pretest seemed too easy -- nearly all one step reasoning except for a few gems like the matching section on pleural effusions. MKSAP questions seemed slightly easier than the shelf, though the acid-base and cardiology sections are great review, in my opinion. I didn't use UW -- saving the bank for Step 2 studying. The Kaplan questions range from bad to terrible for preparation, but still better than nothing. (The main Kaplan qbank IM questions are slightly better than their separate IM qbank, but I didn't use the main qbank for my shelf or rotation study)

Shelf: despite complaints of long stems and answer choices, I found it quite comparable to the surgery and psychiatry shelfs. Content is mostly well-represented by MKSAP and Kaplan, though there are always going to be random questions from other rotations on there, as others have pointed out. Reasonable amount of outpatient internal medicine (screening guidelines, preventative medicine, etc.) so these should be studied even if they are not directly applicable to wards. There are also a very few basic science, Step 1-type questions, generally way out of the left field, that are more or less impossible to study for beforehand.

On the whole, most of the questions on the shelf were relatively straightforward and still classic presentations and buzzword bingo, but the more challenging questions ask about in-depth management and require some thinking.
By my estimates of remembered questions that I later looked up and know for certain I got wrong, one can miss at least 10 questions (and likely around 20 or more, by my estimates) and still get my score.

1) Step Up to Medicine - read it once through (referenced my First Aid for some pharm stuff)
2) UWorld Q bank - did all 1400 medicine questions, very high yield (i was averaging around ~72% on each block)
3) MKSAP questions - did the big systems the day or two before the exam, very high yield (GI, Pulm, Cards, Hem/Onc, Renal)

If I had to focus on one qbank it would be UWorld, but I'm glad i did those MKSAP questions at the end because the are really quick and high yield. I'm usually a fast shelf taker, but this shelf took me all the way to the end. Its a long one so the more practice questions you do, the better.

1) Step Up to Medicine - read it once through (referenced my First Aid for some pharm stuff)
2) UWorld Q bank - did all 1400 medicine questions, very high yield (i was averaging around ~72% on each block)
3) MKSAP questions - did the big systems the day or two before the exam, very high yield (GI, Pulm, Cards, Hem/Onc, Renal)

If I had to focus on one qbank it would be UWorld, but I'm glad i did those MKSAP questions at the end because the are really quick and high yield. I'm usually a fast shelf taker, but this shelf took me all the way to the end. Its a long one so the more practice questions you do, the better.

So I know the consensus is Step-up, UW, and MKSAP. Did anyone use Kaplan IM instead of Step-up, any thoughts? I know Step-up seems like the source to use, I was wondering if Kaplan is just as good or not as good...

So I know the consensus is Step-up, UW, and MKSAP. Did anyone use Kaplan IM instead of Step-up, any thoughts? I know Step-up seems like the source to use, I was wondering if Kaplan is just as good or not as good...

So I know the consensus is Step-up, UW, and MKSAP. Did anyone use Kaplan IM instead of Step-up, any thoughts? I know Step-up seems like the source to use, I was wondering if Kaplan is just as good or not as good...

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Bump. I'd really appreciate it if somebody could please comment on this. Did anybody use Kaplan IM lecture notes instead of Step Up? What was your experience? Appreciate any input. Thanks

What resources of this, exactly, are people using? Books, or digital? I am confused by the availability of what is listed on the ACP website, and when I look at Amazon, I do see books (like 4), but I have no idea what exactly I should buy.

What resources of this, exactly, are people using? Books, or digital? I am confused by the availability of what is listed on the ACP website, and when I look at Amazon, I do see books (like 4), but I have no idea what exactly I should buy.

So what exactly are people using?

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I used MKSAP 5 online plus the questions. I perused a copy of MKSAP 4 and they were similar. I liked that I had access to the MKSAP book online wherever there was Internet, so I didn't have to carry the book around.

i notice step up has a huge section on it and there's a ton of questions in UW even if you say you just want IM qs

thanks

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Honestly, less than 5 on my test, and the neuro they do ask is pretty basic. My assumption has always been that because there is a shelf dedicated to pure clinical neurology most of the more complicated neuro questions end up on that shelf.

Kaplan videos
first aid for step 2 ck (admittedly not a great book, but I refused to play sheep with Step up to step 2, when no one bothered to use Step up to step 1... sheep syndrome.. i refuse to comply)
case files
UCV

Rx qbank
Kaplan qbank
World
Pretest qbank

at the end of the day, what I did was totally overkill. there were so many topics not tested on the IM shelf.

however, the biggest tip i can give everyone is to STAY SHARP. there are many clinical subtleties you should always be aware of.

Kaplan videos
first aid for step 2 ck (admittedly not a great book, but I refused to play sheep with Step up to step 2, when no one bothered to use Step up to step 1... sheep syndrome.. i refuse to comply)
case files
UCV

Rx qbank
Kaplan qbank
World
Pretest qbank

at the end of the day, what I did was totally overkill. there were so many topics not tested on the IM shelf.

however, the biggest tip i can give everyone is to STAY SHARP. there are many clinical subtleties you should always be aware of.

moreover, get familiar with geriatrics

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Congrats! Can you please comment on the Kaplan videos? Also which questions did you find the most useful other than UWORLD? Thanks.

Used uworld, most of step up and studied on the wards. Uworld was definitely the best resource and I would recommend multiple runs through it if possible. Occasional Kaplan vid, but not absolutely necessary imo. This strategy got me a 92.

do all of the NBME for Step 2 forms. That really helped with the inpatient infection prevention and geriatric themes.

A little bit of each of the other qbanks helped, but nowhere near in the same vein as UWorld. It is really about diminishing returns I'd have to say. I was just fortunate to have those other qbanks on my ipad which I could do during rotations when things calmed down a bit.

I also do not think much of MKSAP. Sure the topics they ask about are virtually the same topics as that on the shelf, the MKSAP qusetions are far too simplistic to compare to shelf or board questions